Boise artist and Flying M co-curator John Warfel will show an exhibition of his doodles, which he said are the sorts of things that come out when you are willing to turn off your inner critic and just let the art flow.

"Doodling essentially tells your brain, 'Relax, why dontcha? Take a cognitive load off,'" Warfel said in his artist's statement for the show.

Doodles include everything from lightning bolts and earthworms to a collection of teeth. Warfel also said that doodles are an excellent way of better focusing on the things you might otherwise be bored with, like staff meetings and pie charts. But what do these windows into his unconscious say about him? Warfel said you'll just have to show up and decide for yourself.

Down at the Idaho State Historical Museum, on the other hand, they'll be celebrating the time-honored practice of doing art in your free time at the City of Boise's Employee Art Exhibit.

The museum said that the show is "designed to give all participants, at all levels of skill, an uninhibited opportunity to exhibit their work in a professional manner and to compete for cash prizes."

The show, now in its fourth year, is sponsored by The National Arts Program Foundation, with a little help from its friends at the City of Boise Department of Arts and History and is open to all city employees and their families.

Instead of seeing art that has already been made this First Thursday, you also have the option of seeing it in action.

Idahostel, in the Idaho Building at Eighth and Bannock streets, will be installing a new mural and you are welcome to stop by and take a gander from 6-9 p.m., just so long as you don't goose the artist.

Cory Maas will be working on a 10-foot by 12-foot mural to help brighten up the already mural-fied interior of the hostel, which is owned by Boise Weekly freelancer Andrew Mentzer. Maas got the gig after the work he did on this year's Freak Alley Gallery project.

The mural of an abstract landscape will help fill in the blank space around the men's room entrance.

"That was the most-apparent available space," said Mentzer.

In addition to live painting, Idahostel will also have a DJ and a modest supply of brewed adult beverages on First Thursday.